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Share(לד) וַיִּשָּׂ֥א הָעָ֛ם אֶת־בְּצֵק֖וֹ טֶ֣רֶם יֶחְמָ֑ץ מִשְׁאֲרֹתָ֛ם צְרֻרֹ֥ת בְּשִׂמְלֹתָ֖ם עַל־שִׁכְמָֽם׃ (לה) וּבְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֥ל עָשׂ֖וּ כִּדְבַ֣ר מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַֽיִּשְׁאֲלוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם כְּלֵי־כֶ֛סֶף וּכְלֵ֥י זָהָ֖ב וּשְׂמָלֹֽת׃ (לו) וַֽיהוָ֞ה נָתַ֨ן אֶת־חֵ֥ן הָעָ֛ם בְּעֵינֵ֥י מִצְרַ֖יִם וַיַּשְׁאִל֑וּם וַֽיְנַצְּל֖וּ אֶת־מִצְרָֽיִם׃ (פ)
(34) So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders. (35) The Israelites had done Moses’ bidding and borrowed from the Egyptians objects of silver and gold, and clothing. (36) And the LORD had disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people, and they let them have their request; thus they stripped the Egyptians.
(12) If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall set him free. (13) When you set him free, do not let him go empty-handed: (14) Furnish him out of the flock, threshing floor, and vat, with which the LORD your God has blessed you. (15) Bear in mind that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I enjoin this commandment upon you today.
עיין במל"מ שמסופק בזה וכ' דדמיא לצדקה לשיטות הסוברים בצדקה איכא ש"נ בוודאי גם כאן איכא ש"נ.
Minhat Chinukh, Mitzvah 482
The posek Mishna L'Melech was uncertain about [the nature of the mitzvah of ha'anakah], but he wrote that it is similar to tzedakah (charity). According to some, if someone promises tzedakah and does not pay, we can seize their assets; so too, according to this opinion, if someone failed to pay [their slave] ha'anakah (severance), we could definitely seize [the master's] assets.
אך לדעת הסוברים דאין בצדק' ש"נ מכל מקום אפשר כאן יש ש"נ דשכיר קרי' רחמנא...
וביצא דנתחייב בהענקה ואח"כ מת העבד צריך ליתן ליורשים כן מסקנת הש"ס אליבא דכ"ע והר"מ א"צ לכתוב זה כי הוא פשוט דהוא חוב ויורש יורש חובות...
כי ביציאה דמיתת האדון הטילה התורה החיוב על היורשים
Minhat Chinukh, Mitzvah 482
Some say that unpaid tzedakah doesn't require seizing someone's assets; but even so, perhaps here once can seize assets, since the slave is called a "hired laborer."
When the slave leaves, he [the master] becomes liable for ha'anakah/severance. If afterwards, the slave dies, he needs to give it to the slave's heirs, according to the Gemara...And our teacher didn't need to write that, because it's obvious: this is a debt, and heirs inherit debts...
And when a servant goes free through the master's death, the Torah put an obligation (to pay) even on the master's heirs.
Broach the topic of reparations today and a barrage of questions inevitably follows: Who will be paid? How much will they be paid? Who will pay? But if the practicalities, not the justice, of reparations are the true sticking point, there has for some time been the beginnings of a solution...
A country curious about how reparations might actually work has an easy solution in Conyers’s bill, now called HR 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. We would support this bill, submit the question to study, and then assess the possible solutions. But we are not interested.
John Conyers’s HR 40 is the vehicle for that hearing. No one can know what would come out of such a debate. Perhaps no number can fully capture the multi-century plunder of black people in America. Perhaps the number is so large that it can’t be imagined, let alone calculated and dispensed. But I believe that wrestling publicly with these questions matters as much as—if not more than—the specific answers that might be produced. An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future. More important than any single check cut to any African American, the payment of reparations would represent America’s maturation out of the childhood myth of its innocence into a wisdom worthy of its founders.